Ok, I’ll admit it. I bought this bar of chocolate because it was big – 250g – yet it cost the same as just about every other bar in the shop. And I’ll also admit that I had absolutely no intention of pairing it up with wine either, even though the large lettering on the front demanded that I do.

It even went as far to suggest that I stock up on some Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cognac, Ruby Port and Shiraz before unwrapping the bar – I was beginning sense some serious peer pressure to get drunk.

I’d never had anything from Donini before, and a quick perusal of their website suggests that most of the products are for the wholesale market so by their standards this is probably a small bar. The bar looked a little daunting and a bit tough to break but seeing the recommended course of action is a cheese board and knife, I grabbed those and started to stab at it.

The chocolate itself is a bit on the flaky, crumbly side – it doesn’t have that nice snap to it. While the chocolate looks like it might have a bit of graininess, it is a surprisingly smooth eat. Where it does fall short, however, is the flavour. It somehow manages to fall into that area which isn’t exactly sweet but isn’t particularly robust either. It sure doesn’t taste like the percentage claimed on the wrapper although it isn’t horrible by any means.

Maybe it needs to be propped up by some kind of alcoholic beverage and there’s some magical synergy that emerges. Or maybe after a few glasses of wine, the flatness of it all doesn’t matter.

To be honest, it would probably work really well in some of the chocolate recipes on this site but by itself, it is exceptionally unmemorable.